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In the Kew Bulletin No. 39, March 1890 CXXXI (Bombay 

 Aloe Fibre) the source of this was taken to be A. vivipara as 

 described by Baker in the Gardener's Chronicle (I.e.) which 

 he had further identified with Roxburgh's A. Cantula. 



It is impossible that this " Bombay Aloe " could be Wight's 

 plant, because it had leaves 4 5 feet long and rather concave, 

 whereas the leaves of Wight's vivipara are conspicuously flat 

 on the upper surface, and the largest leaves observed have not 

 exceeded three feet in length, the average being two feet and 

 a quarter. 



It is clear from the correspondence printed with the Bulletin 

 just quoted that the " Bombay Aloe Fibre " then being 

 shipped to England was not grown at Bombay, but obtained 

 (from more than one species most likely) in the Oarnatic 

 and Central India. Fibre is now shipped from Bombay 

 that is raised in the immediate neighbourhood, and, so far 

 as our information goes, this is largely taken from A. Cantala 

 of Roxb. ( A. vivipara L. according to Baker as above, not in 

 Grard. Chron.) 



Eeference to the "Observations" quoted above will show 

 that Roxburgh's experiments gave a high place among the 

 fibres tested to the Agave there mentioned, which we believe 

 to have been the same that he published later as A. Cantala. 



Further enquiry is very necessary to ascertain whether 

 the weak " flexuous " variety of Graham is or is not distinct 

 from A. Cantala. Its fibre, rightly or wrongly, seems to 

 be generally looked on as worthless. 



It may here be noted that in Drury's Useful Plants of India (Madras 

 1858) Wight's Icon 2024 is quoted for "Agave americana" although "A vivi- 

 para L." is given on the next page without comment. Of A. americana it is 

 stated : 



" It is much valued as a hedge-plant, but its chief importance arises from 

 the "excellent fibres which it yelds. Not only are these produced from the 

 leaves, " but a ligneous fibre is contained in the root familiarly known as the Pita 

 thread. "This is much used in the Madras Presidency/' 



We have not been able to confirm the extraction* of fibre from the root 

 of any Agave, and as the passage goes on to describe the process of making 

 thread from the leaves, there is probably a clerical error somewhere. 



This "ligneous fibre" reappears in Babu T. N. Mukerji's Descriptive 

 Catalogue of Indian Produce contributed to the Amsterdam Exhibition, 1883, 

 but it is there stated to be got from the "stem" (? scape) of "Agave americana '> 



* Hernandez speaks of ropes being made with the roots themselves, which 

 is a different matter. 



